A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Patna on Friday awarded life imprisonment to all the five convicted in the 2013 Bodh Gaya serial blasts case.
Those who have been served life term include Haider Ali (30), Umer Siddiqui (39), Azharuddin Quereshi (25), Mujibullah Ansari (28) and Imtiaz Alam (35). All of them have been slapped with a fine of Rs 40,000 each.
The convicts are Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives who were earlier found guilty by the court of Justice Manoj Sinha under Section 120B (conspiracy) and Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC, besides Sections 16, 17, 18, 20 and 23 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Explosive Substances Act.
Ten bombs exploded between 5.30 am and 5.58 am on July 7, 2013, at Mahabodhi Temple, a Unesco World Heritage site, in Bodh Gaya. Two Buddhist monks were seriously injured.
After an initial probe by the Bihar police, the case was eventually handed over to the NIA.
After an investigation, the NIA submitted a charge sheet on June 3, 2014. The probe agency concluded that the conspiracy was hatched by Haider Ali, an operative of Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi), at the residence of former Simi chief Umer Siddiqui at Raipur in Chhattisgarh.
Siddiqui had reportedly given Rs 2.5 lakh to Haider to carry out the blasts. Haider contacted Azharuddin, Imtiaz and Mujibullah to accomplish the task.
“The attack was aimed at avenging the atrocities against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar,” an investigating officer said.
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